XPost: alt.philosophy, alt.atheism, talk.atheism   
   From: ralph@eddlewood.demon.co.uk   
      
   In message <1142534136.525717.45990@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>,   
   Joseph H  writes   
   >   
   >ralph wrote:   
   >> In message , Immortalist   
   >>  writes   
   >>   
   >> >I believe that probability or "randomness" is a psychic instinct or   
   >> >Jungian archetype or mental trend that helps us organize our   
   >> >perceptions and memories and most of all our expectations   
   >>   
   >> And do you think a pollen grain following Brownian movement shares this   
   >> psychic instinct?   
   >   
   >Don't be like that, ralph. If pollen grains can have their Brownian   
   >movements surely we can have our own particular mode, or modes, of   
   >behaviour? The capacity to discern or appreciate probability - in other   
   >words, to guess or assess or estimate a risk - must surely be part of   
   >the package, as it probably (!) is for other creatures as well. Does a   
   >cat not, somehow, assess the risk in making a particular jump?   
   >Where does this leave Jung? Out in the cold, I think.   
      
   I'm sorry, Joseph, this is a technical point. Immortalist has picked up   
   from somewhere that we live in a determinist universe. The simplest   
   demonstration that this is not so was observed by Mr. Brown.   
      
   Encarts says:   
      
   Brownian Motion   
   Brownian Motion, constant erratic movement of tiny particles suspended   
   in a fluid or gas. The phenomenon was discovered in 1827 by the British   
   botanist Robert Brown. Because of their inherent motion, the molecules   
   of the fluid strike the suspended particles at random, making them move.   
   In 1905 Albert Einstein arrived at a mathematical explanation of the   
   phenomenon and integrated it into kinetic theory. One of the earliest   
   estimates of the value of Avogadro's number was made by the French   
   scientist Jean-Baptiste Perrin by a quantitative study of Brownian   
   motion.   
      
   Microsoft ® Encarta ® Encyclopedia 2003. © 1993-2002 Microsoft   
   Corporation. All rights reserved.   
      
   --   
   ralph   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)